__Klaxons__

Klaxons are a indie rock band, based in London. Following the release of numerous 7-inch vinyls on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles "Magick" and "Golden Skans", the band released their debut album, Myths of the Near Future on 29 January 2007. The album won the 2007 Nationwide Mercury Prize.[1] After playing festivals and headlining tours worldwide (including the NME Indie Rave Tour) during late 2006–2007, the band started working on their follow-up album in July 2007.

Jamie Reynolds grew up in Bournemouth and Southampton in his early twenties.[3] He dropped out of studying philosophy at Greenwich University[4] to work in a record shop, before moving to London and being made redundant.[5] He met James Righton and Simon Taylor-Davis, who was his girlfriend's roommate.[6] Righton had been working as a teacher at the time.[7] All three had previously played in various other groups, including Reef and Oasis cover bands.[8] Simon and James grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, where they attended the same school. They shared a house with members of Pull Tiger Tail in New Cross, London, briefly playing a gig together as 'Hollywood Is a Verb' in 2004.[9] Live tracks from the gig are available on the band's MySpace page.[10]

James taught Simon how to play guitar,[5] and with Reynolds' redundancy money they bought a studio kit.[6] They began recording and performing live under their early guise of "Klaxons (Not Centaurs)", including an appearance at the 2006 Camden Crawl.[11] The name came from a quote from Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's futurism text The Futurist Manifesto.[12] Initially the band played with drummer Finnigan Kidd in 2005,[13] until Kidd left to play with fellow New Cross band, Hatcham Social. The band added repacement live drummer Steffan Halperin, with the band announcing him as an official member in an interview in Prefix Magazine in early 2007.[14] Halperin became a semi-official fourth member of the band, being listed on Klaxons' MySpace page and present in several interviews. He remains mostly absent from the band's music videos, appearing only in the early video "Atlantis to Interzone" and briefly in the 2007 re-release of "Gravity's Rainbow".

Klaxons' debut single, "Gravity's Rainbow" was released on 29 March 2006 on Angular Records. Only 500 copies were released, and all were printed on a 7-inch vinyl decorated by the band themselves. Radio 1's Steve Lamacq was the first DJ to play the band, and invited them to play a Maida Vale Studios live session on the strength of the single.[16] The band's second single, "Atlantis to Interzone", was released on June 12 of the same year. It was their first release for independent record label Merok Records, and led to further coverage in NME. The song enjoyed radio coverage from Zane Lowe and daytime airings from Jo Whiley, who repeatedly, and mistakenly, called the song "Atlantic To Interscope".[17] Zane Lowe also wrongly credited the song as "Atlantis To Interscope".[18] They released their first EP, Xan Valleys, on 16 October 2006. It was released on Australian record label Modular Recordings, and contained their first two singles alongside various remixes.